Ottar’s voyage to the White Sea, ninth century
King Alfred’s most important contribution to geographical knowledge of the North is his remarkable account of what the Norwegian Ottar (or “Ohthere” in the Anglo-Saxon text) told him about his voyage to the North. The brief and straightforward narrative of this sober traveller forms in its clearness and definiteness a refreshing contrast to the vague and confused ideas of earlier times about the unknown northern regions. We see at once that we are entering upon a new period.
“Ottar told his lord, Alfred the king, that he dwelt farthest north of all the Norwegians.[161] He said that he dwelt on the northern side of the land by the ‘West-sæ̂.’ He said however that the land extends very far to the north from there; but that it is quite uninhabited (‘weste’), except that in a few places the Finns[162] live, hunting in the winter and fishing in the sea in summer. He said that once he wished to find out how far the land extended due north, and whether any man lived north of the waste tracts. So he went due north[163] along the coast; the whole way he had the uninhabited land to starboard and the open sea to port for three days. Then he was as far north as the whalers go.[164] Then he went on due north as far as he could sail in the next three days. There the land turned due east, or the sea turned into the land,[165] he did not know which; but he knew that there he waited for a west wind, or with a little north in it, and sailed thence eastward, following the coast as far as he could sail in five days. Then he had to wait for a due north wind, because the land there turned due south, or the sea into the land, he did not know which.[166] Then he sailed thence due south along the coast, as far as he could sail in five days. There lay a great river going up into the land, so they turned up into the river, because they dared not sail past it for fear of trouble, since all the country was inhabited on the other side of the river. He had not met with inhabited country before, since he left his own home; but all the way there was waste land to starboard, except for fishermen, fowlers and hunters, and they were all Finns, and there was always sea to port. The land of the Beormas was well inhabited; but they [i.e., Ottar and his men] dared not land there; but the land of the Terfinnas was entirely waste, except where hunters or fishers or fowlers had their abode.
“The Beormas told him many stories both about their own country and the countries that were about it, but he knew not what was true, because he had not seen it himself. The Finns and the Beormas, as it seemed to him, spoke almost the same language. He went thither chiefly to explore the country, and for the sake of the walruses, for they have much valuable bone in their tusks—some such tusks he brought to the king—and their hide is very good for ships’ ropes. This whale is much smaller than other whales, not more than seven cubits long; but in his own country is the best whaling, there they are forty-eight cubits, and the largest fifty cubits long; of them (‘þara’), said he, he with six others (‘syxa sum’) had killed sixty in two days.”[167]
Since King Alfred, as has been said, must have written between 880 and 901, Ottar may have made his voyage about 870 to 890. This remarkable man, who according to his own statement undertook his expedition principally from desire of knowledge, is the second northern explorer of whom we have definite information in history. The first was the Greek Pytheas, who went about as far as the Arctic Circle. Some twelve hundred years later the Norwegian Ottar continues the exploration farther north along the coasts of Norway and sails right into the White Sea. He thereby determined the extent of Scandinavia on the north, and is the first known discoverer of the North Cape, the Polar Sea (or Barents Sea), and the White Sea; but he did not know whether the latter was a bay of the ocean or not. It is unlikely that Ottar was the first Norwegian to discover the coasts along which he sailed. It is true that the expressions “that he wished to find out how far the land extended due north, or whether any man dwelt to the north of the uninhabited tracts,” might be taken to mean that this was hitherto unknown to the Norwegians; but it should doubtless rather be understood as a general indication of the object of the voyage: this was of interest to King Alfred, but not whether it was absolutely the first voyage of discovery in those regions. The names Terfinnas and Beormas are given as something already known, and when Ottar reaches the latter he understands at once that he ought not to proceed farther, for fear of trouble; it may be supposed that he knew them by report as a warlike people. A. Bugge [1908, p. 409] quotes K. Rygh to the effect that the names of fjords in Finmark must be very ancient, e.g., those that end in “-angr.” This termination is not found in Iceland, and would consequently be older than the Norwegian colonisation of that country; nor does “angr” (== fjord) as an appellative occur in the Old Norse literary language. It may therefore be possible that these names are older than Ottar. Bugge also, from information given by Mr. Qvigstad, calls attention to the fact that the Lapps call Magarö “Makaravjo,” and a place on Kvalö (near Hammerfest) “Rahkkeravjo.” The latter part of these names must be the primary Germanic word “awjô” for island or land near the shore. According to this the Norsemen must have been as far north as this and have given names to these places, while this form of the word was still in use, and the Finns or Lapps have taken it from them.
The land of the Terfinnas, which was uninhabited, is the whole Kola peninsula. Its name was “Ter” (or “Turja”), whence the designation Ter-Finns. The common supposition that the river Ottar came to was the Dvina cannot be reconciled with Ottar’s narrative given above, which expressly states that he followed the coast round the peninsula all the way, “and there was always open sea to port.”[168] He cannot, therefore, have left the land and sailed straight across the White Sea; moreover he could not be aware that there was land on the other side of this wide bay of the ocean.[169] The river which “went up into the land” was consequently on the Kola peninsula, and formed the boundary between the unsettled land of the Terfinnas and that of the Beormas with fixed habitation. The river may have been the Varzuga, although it is also possible that Ottar sailed farther west along the southern coast of the Kola peninsula, without this alteration of course appearing in Alfred’s description. He may then have gone as far as the Kandalaks.
What kind of people Ottar’s Beormas[170] may have been is uncertain. We only hear that they lived in the country on the other side of the river, that their country was well settled (i.e., was permanently inhabited by an agricultural population ?), that they were able to communicate with Ottar, and that they spoke almost the same language as the Finns. The description may suit the East Karelians, whom we find, at any rate somewhat later, established on the south and west side of the White Sea, as far north as the Kandalaks, perhaps also as far as the Varzuga. If this is correct, we must suppose that Ottar’s Finns and Terfinns spoke a Finno-Ugrian language, very like Karelian. As Ottar knew the Finns well, his statement about the language deserves consideration.
This view, that the Beormas were Karelians, agrees with Egil Skallagrimsson’s Saga, which doubtless was put into writing much later, but which mentions Ottar’s contemporary, Thorolf Kveldulfsson, and his expeditions among the Finns or Lapps to collect the Finnish or Lappish tribute (about 873 and 874). We read there: “East of Namdal lies Jemtland, and then Helsingland, and then Kvænland, and then Finland, then Kirjalaland. But Finmark lies above all these countries.” Kirjalaland is Karelia, which thus lies quite in the east upon the White Sea, and must be Ottar’s Bjarmeland (Beormaland). On his Finnish expedition of 874 Thorolf came far to the east, and was then appealed to by the Kvæns for help against the Kirjals (Karelians), who were ravaging Kvænland. He proceeded northward against them and overcame them; returned to Kvænland, went thence up into Finmark, and came down from the mountains in Vefsen. This mention of the ravages of the Kirjals agrees with the impression of Ottar’s Beormas, who were so warlike that he dared not pass by their country.
Ottar’s account of himself was that
“he was a very rich man in all classes of property of which their wealth [i.e., the wealth of those peoples] consists, that is, in wild beasts (‘wildrum’). He had further, when he came to the king, six hundred tame, unsold animals. These animals they called reindeer. There were six decoy reindeer (‘stæl hranas’), which are very dear among the Finns, for with them they catch the wild reindeer. He was among the principal men in that country [Hålogaland], although he had no more than twenty horned cattle, and twenty sheep, and twenty pigs; and the little ploughing he did was done with horses [i.e., not with oxen, as among the Anglo-Saxons]. But their largest revenue is the tribute paid them by the Finns; this tribute consists of pelts and birds’ feathers [down] and whalebone [walrus tusks], and they gave ships’ ropes made of whales’ [walrus] hide, and of seals’. Each one pays according to his rank; the chiefs have to pay fifteen martens’ skins, five reindeers’ skins, one bear’s skin, ten ankers of feathers, a kirtle of bear- or otter-skin, and two ships’ ropes, each sixty cubits long, one made of whales’ [i.e., walrus] hide, and the other of seals’.”